Lord almighty, it’s been quite the couple of weeks. I’m really glad I went hard and heavy working on the Christmas quilt earlier this month, because without my nose to the grindstone there would have been no hope of finishing by the UFO contest’s February 4th deadline.

Here’s what it looked like last time I updated.

And here’s the backing I chose! I loved the poinsettia option, but it was just too pricey for my cheap ass.

We’ve been having quite the weather here the last couple of days. Rain, rain and more rain…with daytime temperatures hovering around freezing (and dipping below at night). I’ve managed to make it in to work every day so far, but I had Midwestern Interesting* parts of my commute each day with slippery stretches of road. Snow? Expected here in the Winter. Ice? A bit more of a problem. But, it’s been manageable.

Anywho enough about the weather: just wanted to share updates on some projects and a couple of plans!

As I’ve mentioned in some past posts, I decided to make a few Christmas gifts this year. Here’s what I came up with!

Last year I started my Christmas gift crafting WAY early. We’re talking August (early for me! Maybe not for some). And I successfully finished a total of 8 pairs of socks for my mom, dad, Mr. 5, sister, bro-in-law, nephew, cousin, and cousin’s boyfriend.

Most of them

They seemed like they went over pretty well…who doesn’t like a nice pair of toasty socks? However, I decided this year that knitting on a fairly tight schedule for 4 months straight didn’t seem so appealing.

So, this year I decided to do something a little different – I made one thing for the ladies and another thing for the guys.